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Instantbird 1.5 Released, How to Install it in Ubuntu

Last updated: December 24, 2013

install instantbird ubuntu

Instantbird, the instant messaging client now is at version 1.5 which has updated to Mozilla 25 and brings various improvements. This simple tutorial is going to show you how to install Instantbird in Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, and Ubuntu 12.04.

What’s New in Instantbird 1.5

  • Creating a new conversation tab has been made easier.
    • Clicking the ‘+’ button in a conversation window shows a list of conversations that can be started with a single click.
    • The list is sorted with a frecency algorithm, taking into account how often and how recently you’ve talked to each contact.
    • This list also automatically includes the channels advertised by the IRC servers you are connected to.
  • New tooltips that better fit the style of Instantbird
  • Improved Multi-user chats user interface:
    • Participants now have context menus that allow you to open private conversations or add them as buddies.
    • Highlighted nicks in chat rooms now have tooltips and context menus.
  • Auto-joined chat rooms that have been put on hold will stay on hold after a restart.
  • A list of alternate nicks for IRC can be configured, in case your preferred nick is taken when you connect.
  • about: pages (e.g. about:config) can now easily be opened with the /about command (e.g. /about config).
  • Retina display support on Mac OS X.
  • Google Talk and Hangouts Android users are now shown as mobile.
  • Google Hangouts users will no longer appear as always typing.
  • Better support for displaying RTL languages in conversations.
  • The vKontakte protocol was removed as the vKontakte service dropped support for connecting with an XMPP client.
  • New for developers: New API to add tab panels with arbitrary content to conversation windows: in-code documentation.
  • Updated to Mozilla 25.
  • Various minor bugs and a few crashers fixed.

    • Install Instantbird in Ubuntu

    Ubuntu Unity users can ALWAYS do below steps to install instantbird. If you’ve already installed a previous version, remove it.

    1. Download instantbird for Linux from official website

    2. Extract the downloaded package. You’ll see a result folder instantbird

    3. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to copy the folder to /opt/:

    sudo mv ~/Downloads/instantbird/ /opt/instantbird/

    4. Now create a launcher for instantbird by:

    sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/instantbird.desktop

    Copy and paste below into the file and save it.

    [Desktop Entry]
    Name=Instantbird
    Version=1.5
    Encoding=UTF-8
    Comment=
    Exec=/opt/instantbird/instantbird
    Icon=/opt/instantbird/icons/mozicon128.png
    StartupNotify=true
    Terminal=false
    Type=Application
    Categories=Application;Network;InstantMessaging;

    5. Now you’re able to launch instantbird from Unity Dash. For 64 bit system, you may install run below command in Ubuntu 13.10 and higher (install ia32-libs in Ubuntu 13.04 and earlier,):

    sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-0:i386 libpangox-1.0-0:i386 libpangoxft-1.0-0:i386 libidn11:i386 libglu1-mesa:i386 liblibxt-dev:i386 libasound-dev:i386
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    Change Your Linux Notebook To An Unsupported Screen Resolution

    Last updated: December 23, 2013

    notebook screen resolutions

    Want to change your Linux notebook desktop to an unsupported resolution? Well, there’s a small Nautilus script called newrez. It provides an graphical interface and lets your type in a resolution even higher than your display’s physical dimensions!

    Newrez does NOT “over-drive” the actual hardware. Instead, it defines a higher-resolution display on the netbook’s VGA port, and scales it to the LCD.

    You are not restricted to “standard” resolutions. Values like 1100×730 or 1350×900 or even 1400×700 will work just fine (and a few-pixel adjustment automatically applied if needed). Setting to ‘default’ will return everything back to normal.

    set-new-screen-resolution

    This script can also be run directly from the command line, as in “newrez 1280×800” or “newrez default”. This makes it a simple matter to switch to create scripts or icons that set your most common resolutions, or to include resolution changes into other scripts or launchers.

    NOTE: At present, this will not work if you use the vendor-supplied Nvidia or ATI driver.

    If the laptop lid is closed and re-opened, you MAY find the the mouse is constrained to an area the size of the default resolution. This is caused by xrandr. Re-execute newrez to fix this.

    Download at this page

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    Linux Mint 16 KDE & Xfce Released [Download & Upgrade Links]

    Last updated: December 23, 2013

    Linux Mint 16

    Linux Mint 16 “Petra” KDE & Xfce has been released on 22 Dec. Both releases feature Xfce 4.10 / KDE 4.11, MDM 1.4, a Linux kernel 3.11 and an Ubuntu 13.10 package base. Let’s see what’s NEW in these two release and how to upgrade from a previous version of Linux Mint.

    New features in Mint 16 Xfce (complete overview):

    • Xfce 4.10 Desktop
    • Whisker Menu 1.2
    • Pulse Audio (allow to switch back to ALSA)
    • Login Screen (MDM 1.4)
    • USB Stick support
    • Performance improvements
    • Bug fixes and performance improvements on Software Manager
    • Lots of system improvements
    • Artwork Improvements

    Mint16-xfce

    New Features in Mint 16 KDE (See complete overview):

    • KDE 4.11
    • Samba Mounter -mount network shares graphically and locally
    • Login Screen (MDM 1.4)
    • USB Stick support
    • Performance improvements
    • Bug fixes and performance improvements on Software Manager
    • Lots of system improvements
    • Artwork Improvements

    Mint-16-Petra-kde

    Download Links & Upgrade instructions

    Both releases can follow this instructions to upgrade from a previous version of Linux Mint.

    Download Links:

    Linux Mint 16 Petra KDE 32-bit | 64-bit

    Linux Mint 16 Petra Xfce 32-bit | 64-bit

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    How to Install Nomacs Image Viewer via PPA in Ubuntu Linux

    Last updated: December 22, 2013

    Nomacs PPA

    Nomacs is a small and fast image viewer which handles the most common image formats including RAW images. Additionally it is possible to synchronize multiple viewers on same computer or via LAN. It allows to compare images and spot the differences (e.g. schemes of architects to show the progress).

    Nomacs image viewer works on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. The latest version now is at 1.6.2 and here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Linux Mint and their derivatives via PPA repository.

    New features added in Nomacs 1.6:

    • Grid View for Thumbnails
    • Image Mosaicing Tool
    • Gif Player (Pause Animated Images and View Frame by Frame)
    • WebP on all platforms
    • Customizable Mouse Wheel
    • French Translation

    Video:

    Install Nomacs:

    Ubuntu and Linux Mint users can easily install the latest version from PPA repository.

    To do so, press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run commands below one by one:

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nomacs/stable

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install nomacs

    For Windows, other Linux, and source code go to the official download page

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    Enlightenment E18 released, Install it in Ubuntu via PPA

    Last updated: December 22, 2013

    enlightenment e18 ppa

    Enlightenment desktop environment 0.18 was finally released. It’s been exactly one year since the last major release of Enlightenment.

    According to the announcement, the compositing window manager is more stable than E17 and now has Wayland client support along with a new teamwork module.

    Enlightenment DR 0.18 also has a new music-control module, bluez4 BLuetooth module, an AppMenu DBus module, and a conf_comp module for controlling compositor settings.

    Making this annual Enlightenment update more exciting is also better systemd integration, the internal theme merged into Elementary, RandR and binding config domains have been split into separate files, and many file-manager improvements. Enlightenment’s file manager improvements for version 0.18 include UDisks2 support, more accurate directory listings, and other improvements.

    e18

    Install E18 via PPA in Ubuntu:

    Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run commands below one by one to install e18 from PPA (coming soon) in Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 12.10 and their derivatives:

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:vase/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install enlightenment

    Enlightenment E18 will be available soon in the main rolling release distributions like Arch Linux, Sabayon, Debian Sid etc.

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    KDE Audio Converter CD Ripper soundKonverter 2.0.5 & 2.0.90 released

    Last updated: December 22, 2013

    KDE sound converter cd ripper

     

    SoundKonverter, the KDE audio converter, Replay Gain tool and CD ripper now is at version 2.0.5 and 2.0.90 (2.1.0 rc1).

    According to the changelog, soundKonverter 2.0.5 added Catalan, Swedish, Chinese (Taiwan), and Romanian translations. 2.0.90 added following new features:

    • Hide main window when started with –replaygain argument
    • Option to eject CD after ripping has been completed (enabled by default)
    • New space holder for the “meta data” naming mode that contains the source directory
    • Configuration options for cdparanoia
    • icedax ripper plugin
    • Copy album artist tags
    • Remember last folder for add files/directory/playlist dialogs
    • Add symlinked files to file list

    soundKonverter audio convert

    soundKonverter CD ripping

    SoundKonverter Features:

    • Convert audio files between many formats
    • Change sample rate and sample size during conversion
    • Apply effects like normalize during conversion
    • Convert the audio stream from video files to audio files
    • Convert multiple files at once
    • Calculate Replay Gain for many formats
    • Replay Gain tool for calculating and removing Replay Gain tags
    • Calculate Replay Gain for multiple files or file stets at once
    • Conversion and Replay Gain calculation is very scalable, the conversion of 10000 files or more is not a problem
    • Copy tags and covers when converting files (note: for ogg/METADATA_BLOCK_PICTURE, flac and asf/wma files, taglib 1.7 or higher is needed)
    • Rip multiple audio CDs at once
    • Retrieve audio CD information from CDDB and MusicBrainz
    • Easy to use, just choose a file format and a quality level
    • Detailed control, if you want to choose the conversion settings in more detail, simply switch to the “detailed” tab
    • Manage your preferred conversion options with profiles
    • Contextual help, e.g. if you don’t know what the speex format is, just click on the “info” button next to it.
      Or if you want to add a file that isn’t supported, soundKonverter will tell you how to enable the format if possible.
    • Possibility to configure which backend shall be used for which codec – or let soundKonverter optimize that for you.
      Every time you install or remove backends soundKonverter will suggest optimizations if possible.
    • Possibility to integrate soundKonverter in other applications or scripts by using its command line interface
    • Data recovery in case of a crash

    Install SoundKonverter in Ubuntu Linux:

    The installers for CentOS, Debian, Fedora, Mandriva, RedHat, OpenSuse, Ubuntu are available in this page.

    For Ubuntu users, use the Deb package for xUbuntu 12.04 which works good in my Ubuntu 13.10 64 bit machine.

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    Rainlendar – A Great Desktop Calendar for Linux

    Last updated: December 22, 2013

    rainlendar desktop calendar

    Looking for a calendar app? Besides Google Calendar, there’s a good choice for Ubuntu Linux users, called rainlendar, which a highly customizable desktop calendar that keeps your events and tasks and reminds your with alarms.

    Rainlendar supports events and tasks which both are kept in separate lists.

    Rainlendar events and tasks

    You’ll get notified in advanced before the event is due so that you don’t forget your important events. It is also possible to snooze the alarm if you want to get reminded about it later.

    Rainlendar Alarm

    Rainlendar Alarm

    All the data is stored in the standard iCalendar format (RFC2445) which means it easy to transfer the events between most calendar applications.

    Rainlendar comes with a few skins, you can get some from internet. There’s a link in settings page.

    Install Rainlendar:

    This app works on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. EXE, DEB, DMG files and source code are available in this page

    Ubuntu users need to install the required package tofrodos which is available in Ubuntu Software Center.

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    Pipelight – Silverlight In Linux Got A New Ubuntu PPA

    Last updated: December 21, 2013

    Microsoft Silverlight in Ubuntu

    Pipelight, a browser plugin allows to use Microsoft Silverlight in your Linux browser now get a NEW PPA which includes the required Wine packages.

    The PPA supports Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty, Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy, Ubuntu 13.04 Raring, Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal, Ubuntu 12.04, Linux Mint and their derivatives.

    What’s Pipelight

    Pipelight consists out of two parts: A Linux library which is loaded into the browser and a Windows program started in Wine. The Windows program, called pluginloader.exe, simply simulates a browser and loads the Silverlight DLLs. When you open a page with a Silverlight application the library will send all commands from the browser through a pipe to the Windows process and act like a bridge between your browser and Silverlight. The used pipes do not have any big impact on the speed of the rendered video since all the video and audio data is not send through the pipe. Only the initialization parameters and (sometimes) the network traffic is send through them. As a user you will not notice anything from that “magic” and you can simply use Silverlight the same way as on Windows, like you can see on the following screenshot:

    silverlight chrome ubuntu

    Install Pipelight on Ubuntu

    NOTE: It is strongly recommended to close your browser before installing! Some browsers try immediately to load the plugin which might fail or crash the browser when the installation is not complete!

    For those who have already installed previous version of Pipelight. It’s recommended to remove the earlier PPAs (Ctrl+Alt+T to open teminal and run):

    sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:mqchael/pipelight

sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:ehoover/compholio

    Then add the NEW PPA:

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pipelight/stable

    Update package lists and install the plugin:

    sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install pipelight

    Once installed, start (or restart) your browser and go to the bottom of www.iis.net/media/experiencesmoothstreaming to see the result.

    For user agent or blank screen problem, take a look at this FAQ

    Pipelight on launchpad

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    How to install / upgrade Kernel 3.10.25 LTS in Ubuntu Linux Mint

    Last updated: December 21, 2013

    Linux Kernel 3.10.25

    The Linux Kernel 3.10 (Long Term Support) now is at 25th maintenance release. Linux Kernel 3.10.25 is a big released which brings several x86 improvements, numerous updated drivers (Radeon, i915, hwmon, ALSA, wireless, USB), various fixes (KVM, PowerPC, ARM, Btrfs), as well as other changes. See the changelog for details.

    All users of 3.10 Kernel series are urged to upgrade as soon as possible, here’s how to do it in Ubuntu, Linux Mint and their derivatives.

    Install / Upgrade Kernel 3.10.25:

    The DEBs are available in Ubuntu Kernel page. Follow the steps below to download & install them if you’re on familiar with command line:

    1. Download the DEB:

    For 32 bit system:

    cd ~/Downloads/ && wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.25-saucy/linux-headers-3.10.25-031025-generic_3.10.25-031025.201312201135_i386.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.25-saucy/linux-headers-3.10.25-031025_3.10.25-031025.201312201135_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.25-saucy/linux-image-3.10.25-031025-generic_3.10.25-031025.201312201135_i386.deb

    For 64 bit system:

    cd ~/Downloads/ && wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.25-saucy/linux-headers-3.10.25-031025-generic_3.10.25-031025.201312201135_amd64.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.25-saucy/linux-headers-3.10.25-031025_3.10.25-031025.201312201135_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.25-saucy/linux-image-3.10.25-031025-generic_3.10.25-031025.201312201135_amd64.deb

    2. Install the DEBs:

    cd ~/Downloads/ && sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-3.10.25-*.deb linux-image-3.10.25-*.deb

    Restart your computer and done.

    If you’re using proprietary video driver, you may need to re-build or re-install to get it work with new kernel.

    If for some reason this kernel release doesn’t work properly for you, reboot into previous kernel (Grub -> Advanced -> select previous kernel) and run commands to remove Linux Kernel 3.10.25:

    sudo apt-get remove linux-headers-3.10.25-* linux-image-3.10.25-*
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    How to Install / Upgrade Kernel 3.12.6 Ubuntu Linux Mint

    Last updated: December 21, 2013

    Linux Kernel 3.12.6

    The sixth maintenance release of Linux kernel 3.12 has been released recently, which brings several ARM and x86 improvements, numerous updated drivers (Radeon, i915, HID, hwmon, md, Ethernet, wireless, DVB, USB), various filesystem improvements (Btrfs, XFS, NFS), as well as sound and networking fixes. See the changelog for details.

    Linux Kernel 3.12.6 is a very big release, Greg Kroah-Hartman recommended users of 3.12 kernel series upgrade to this release as soon as possible.

    Install / Upgrade Kernel 3.12.6:

    Users of Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 13.04, Linux Mint, and their derivatives can easily get the DEBs of this kernel from Ubuntu Kernel page. Or follow the steps below:

    1. Download the Kernel DEBs:

    For 32 bit:

    cd ~/Downloads/ && wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.6-trusty/linux-headers-3.12.6-031206-generic_3.12.6-031206.201312201218_i386.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.6-trusty/linux-headers-3.12.6-031206_3.12.6-031206.201312201218_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.6-trusty/linux-image-3.12.6-031206-generic_3.12.6-031206.201312201218_i386.deb

    For 64 bit:

    cd ~/Downloads/ && wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.6-trusty/linux-headers-3.12.6-031206-generic_3.12.6-031206.201312201218_amd64.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.6-trusty/linux-headers-3.12.6-031206_3.12.6-031206.201312201218_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.6-trusty/linux-image-3.12.6-031206-generic_3.12.6-031206.201312201218_amd64.deb

    2. Install the DEBs:

    cd ~/Downloads/ && sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-3.12.6-*.deb linux-image-3.12.6-*.deb

    Restart your computer and done.

    If you’re using proprietary video driver, you may need to re-build or re-install to get it work with new kernel.

    If for some reason this kernel release doesn’t work properly for you, reboot into previous kernel (Grub -> Advanced -> select previous kernel) and run commands to remove Linux Kernel 3.12.6:

    sudo apt-get remove linux-headers-3.12.6-* linux-image-3.12.6-*
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